


Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Movie

by MadameHardy



Category: Revengers Tragedy (2003), Wallace Stevens
Genre: Multi, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameHardy/pseuds/MadameHardy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Wallace Stevens had been an Alex Cox fan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Movie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alchemine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alchemine/gifts).



I.  
Among ten corpses,  
The only moving thing  
Was the mushroom cloud.

II.  
I was of five minds,  
But they were all murdered  
Before the credits.

III.  
There were fire eaters.  
There are always fire eaters.  
Why?

IV.  
A man and a woman are one.  
A man and a woman and a child are one.  
Until  
The bride bleeds from the mouth.

V.  
I do not know which to prefer.  
Christopher Eccleston  
Or Eddie Izzard.  
Sophie Dahl  
Or Derek Jacobi.  
Mmmmmmmm.

VI.  
Jacobean verse  
Competes with Eddie Izzard  
Perfecting his cheekbones  
With a naked razor blade.  
Verse loses.

VII.  
O sons of the Duke,  
Why do you seek for advancement?  
Do you not see that the Blackpool omnibus  
Departs at noon?  
Take my advice.  
Be on it.

VIII.  
I know noble accents  
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;  
Torneur’s entangled cadences —  
Or Middleton’s, scholars differ —  
Flow trippingly off each tongue.  
British actors have _training_.

IX.  
I saw Vindice  
Lean and horrible and chattering.  
I saw a skull  
Black and horrible and chattering.  
I thought of Muppets.

X.  
The mother beds her stepson.  
The brothers cast mutual lascivious glances.  
The father will tup anything.  
With canon this twisted  
It’s hardly worth writing --  
Scratch that.  
What’s Jacobean for “orgy”?

XI.  
They rode through Liverpool  
In a black stretch limo.  
Fey, inane, sexy, spiky, and cowboy hat.  
Whoops, one died.  
More room in back.

XII  
Mournful ineluctable chords  
Warn of the doom that comes to all men  
But especially Vindice.  
Don’t try this at home.

XIII  
It was murky all day.  
Something to do with the apocalypse.  
It was grunging  
And it was going to grunge.  
I have seen the future  
And punk is on-trend.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Mithrigil for inspired general beta and for pointing out missing stanzas.


End file.
